Processing facilities are often managed using process control systems. Example processing facilities include manufacturing plants, chemical plants, crude oil refineries, and ore processing plants. Among other operations, process control systems typically manage the use of motors, valves, and other industrial equipment in the processing facilities.
Conventional process control systems routinely include a large number of field devices, such as sensors and actuators. Communications with field devices often occur using various standard or other protocols, such as HART, FOUNDATION Fieldbus, or PROFIBUS. These types of protocols often support the use of a structured language called the Electronic Device Description Language (“EDDL”), which is defined in the IEC 61804-3 standard. This language can be used to create device description or electronic device description (“DD/EDD”) files, which describe the online functional behavior of the field devices. The DD/EDD files can be interpreted by a host application and used to control interactions with and configuration of the field devices.
Another standard technology used with field devices is Field Device Tool/Device Type Manager (“FDT/DTM”) technology, which is defined in the IEC/PAS 62453 standard. This technology defines components that support “plug-and-play” use of field devices. For example, a device DTM is a component that defines a field device's configuration, and it includes a user interface for interacting with the field device. A communication DTM is a component that defines an interface for communicating with a field device using a specific protocol. Multiple communication DTMs could be provided to support communications using different protocols. A communication DTM interfaces with the host application through a field device's device DTM. As a result, the host application can merely create an instance of the appropriate device DTM and link the device DTM with the appropriate communication DTM. At this point, the host application can communicate with the field device, and the user can interact with the field device.